Mudminnow River fiend

stigmata could withstand teeth. he could withstand claws. and words.

there was no torch of emotion that could burn him; no sea of vitriol he could not swim. 

he had overcome plague, and famine, and seen death a thousand times over.

and yet.

he was not prepared to be felled by a pair of eyes.

a common burnished bister -  unremarkable. unmistakable.

anguished. and then gone.

he lurched forward without meaning to, regret propelling him even as cruelly stubborn tendrils of pride caused his limbs seize up and forced all the air out of his lungs so that he could not call out to her.

his eyes swelled - wider, and wider, until his eyelids would go back no further - and all she had to do was turn around, and she would see how badly he wanted to amend it all. how desperate he was to return to her, no matter the rift driven between them.

but she spared him no look, leaving the mania to slowly drain from him as she drew further from sight, until he was standing completely alone; feeling like his entire body was an open wound that would heal only if he... just stood there.